The commercial Dungeness Crab season will end two-and-a-half months earlier than usual. The California State Fish and Wildlife has announced that all crab pots and vertical lines must be removed from the ocean south of Point Arena by April 15th. This comes after the season started six weeks late. At the beginning of the season, fisherman were only allowed to put in half their gear. This is the fifth straight year that the season will end early in order to reduce potentially fatal whale entanglements in fishing gear. So far, no whales have been caught in commercial crab gear this year. Four whales were entangled last year. Many commercial crabbers are concerned about the viability of the industry as the season keeps getting cut short year after year.
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